The Grey Parrot. 
7 
sending him flying round his cage, screeching wildly. Though 
much better now, he is still timid, and a strange object put in his 
seed tin will keep him for hours clinging to the wires of his cage 
on the side farthest away from it. If suddenly frightened he 
always dives head first out of his ring or off his perch to the 
bottom of his cage. This habit, though no doubt an excellent 
instinct in his native African forests, if attacked by a hawk whilst 
feeding on the tops of the trees, is likely in captivity to lead to 
sudden death through a dislocated neck. He is an excellent 
linguist, though when we first got him he would not say a word, 
and though but little time has been spent on his education, he 
can repeat quite a number of long sentences. Africa was a word 
we could never teach him to repeat, though we tried harti, whilst 
many sentences he says he could only have heard saitl once. 
Unfortunatly the last eighteen months he has taken to feather 
plucking, his breast and the shoulders of his wings being the 
places selected for his self mutilation. This is not due to improper 
food, as his staple diet is canary seed, with eight or nine sunflower 
seeds daily, this seed being his favourite tit-bit. Cherries are his 
favourite fruit, followed in order by grapes and red-currants. 
Apple he eats occasionally, but is not fond of it, whilst bananas, 
strawberries, and other fruits he will not touch. Green stuff he 
simply pulls to bits but does not eat ; he is, however, very fond of 
a walnut. He regularly takes a bath, which is hung on to the 
door of his cage and this he enjoys immensely. He first of all sits 
down in it and gets thoroughly soaked, then he scratches like a 
hen with his feet, throwing the water out behind in torrents. He 
was very frightened of his bath at first, but by placing it on his 
cage empty for several days and putting his daily allowance of 
sunflower seeds in it I got him used to it. His plumage is a light 
bright grey all over, not the dull smoky grey of many grey 
parrots, whilst his tail is a very bright but paleish red. Wheii I 
first got him his iris was a very pale yellow. His tail also con- 
tained two dark muddy red feathers, which were very conspicuous 
amongst his tail feathers. They were the second from each side 
and were moulted out the first moult, being replaced by feathers 
similar to the rest. A number of his secondaries were splashed 
with red, but how many I cannot say, as he objects to being 
handled, though he likes his poll scratched. Within the last 
eighteen months he has suddenly tleveloped a number of red anil 
